Making peace with minimalism

I spent my lunch break today reading blogs on minimalism. I am impressed and depressed by the entire concept.

Impressed by:

the freedom and detachment that minimalists seem to get from living with only the bare necessities of life.

the look of vast expanses of cleared space.

the savings in time, money and stress.

the courage it takes to give things up.

Depressed by:

how far I have to go.

how cluttered my life and my time are right now.

how much time and money I have spent on acquiring all of this.

the fear that keeps me clinging to things that I know are just things.

I need to remind myself that everyone comes to minimalizing / downsizing / decluttering with their own set of issues and at their own stage in life. Joshua at The Minimalists gave away 90% of his belongings in a two-year period; Colleen at 365 Less Things decluttered one thing per day; Benita at Chez Larsson has always been streamlined – it’s just her style. I have made a huge amount of progress over time by getting rid of things in fits and starts and trying to buy and acquire less. Now I have made a commitment to release something from my life each day, and in less than a month, it has become enough of a habit that I will leap out of bed and go find something to get rid of if I haven’t remembered to do so before then. That’s progress.

I just need to remind myself that progress is all I need right now.

{Clutter} released: A big sign that says “CAUTION – Children at Play” and a pill sorter.

{Perfectionism} released: I bit my tongue as David pruned the bushes in a way that I would not have chosen to prune them. (How’s that for a diplomatically-worded sentence?)